Estonia

Jasper Ristkok

Jasper Ristkok | Photo: private

Born 1997 in Paide, EstoniaCurrently studying physics, chemistry and material science in the University of Tartu.

"Leaf spring crossbow" (2016)

In October 2016, twenty-four award winners from EUSTORY competitions met at a History Camp in Georgia. For this occasion they prepared posters about their projects and findings which were displayed in the National History Museum in Tbilisi.

My competition entry was about constructing a leaf spring crossbow through trial and error, calculating the efficient crossbow bolt through test shots and later comparing my research with historical data. In my research paper I provided a project report and an overview about crossbows.

How did you decide on your topic?My school promoted our national History Competition and after seeing my friend working on a research paper by building a steam train model, I decided to combine the research with my hobby of technical construction. Furthermore, my fascination with the medieval era made the research paper the perfect combination.

How did you react when you came upon surprising points during your research?The biggest surprise in my research was that during the work many complications arose: 50% of the time went into fixing the problems. My goal was to construct the crossbow myself and search information about it afterwards. Another surprise was that there is relatively little information about crossbows. Therefore, I had to remain a bit skeptical whether to trust some sources. My main source was a book written in 1903.